Arms Control and Disarmament Attitudes (Germany)

Attitude of German elites to arms control, disarmament, future policies
of the country and European integration.

Topics: 1. Questions of domestic policy: judgement on the political
development in the next few years; perceived influence of special
interest groups on politics; primary differences of the most important
parties; attitude to the form of the constitution of the Federal
Republic; judgement on the current significance of National Socialism
in the FRG.

2. Foreign policy questions: attitude to German foreign policy and
neutralizing Europe; judgement on the German-American relationship;
expected changes in the status of Berlin; assessment of the chances of
reunification and the development of relations with the East; attitude
to a reduction in sovereignty for the benefit of international mergers;
attitude to European integration.

3. Security policy questions: assessment of the reliability of NATO
and the current military threat from the East; judgement on deterrence
and the arms costs related to this; attitude to arms controls and the
East-West treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons experiments; assumed
impairment of security with arms limitations agreements; attitude to
nuclear armament of NATO and the distribution of the right to vote of
the members.

Demography: sex; religious denomination; self-assessment of social
class; school education; vocational training; occupation. Also encoded
were information from file analyses and a very extensive

Interviewer rating: authority, extent to which informed and
possibilities to influence of respondent in the individual areas
addressed; personality of respondent; belonging to national and
international organizations; memberships; participation in military
service; academic degree; size of city of origin and current size of
place of residence; biographic data and occupational career; party
affiliation and party status since before 1933; political activity
before the war; identification of interviewer; length of interview;
interview surroundings; interruptions of the interview; attitude to
interview and interviewer.